Host Ira Glass plays parts of a speech by George Ryan, former Governor of Illinois. When he was a state senator in 1977, Ryan was part of a successful coalition that voted to reinstate the death penalty in Illinois. Two decades later, he became governor and had to make the final decision in state capital cases—cases which he'd helped bring about 20 years earlier. He found that the death penalty looks a lot different when you're the one who bears final responsibility for whether someone lives or dies. — Ira Glass

Tags:

Scott Carrier tells the story of how the environmentalist that ranchers hated the most—whom they tried to run out of town and hanged in effigy—came to take the ranchers' side of things. Some funding for this story comes from Hearingvoices.com and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Scott Carrier is the author of the book Running After Antelope. — Scott Carrier